Many school districts have recently revised, or tried to revise, their policies for assigning students to schools, because the legal and political status of racial and other kinds of diversity is uncertain, and the districts are facing fiscal austerity. This article presents case studies of politics and student assignment policy in three large…

This article examines the legal and political significance of teacher unionization in rural and suburban school districts between 1960 and 1975. While most historians focus on the growth of unions in urban areas, strikes in outlying districts played a determinative role in the development of public sector labor law, particularly in the arbitration…

Purpose: This article examines factors that affect school board policy making about student diversity within two southern urban-suburban school districts experiencing changing demographics: Jefferson County Public Schools and the Wake County Public School System. Both districts have a history of voluntary integration efforts, and research shows…

This case, set in the high plateau of the Texas Panhandle, covers the years 1998-2004. The focus is on voting rights. The Amarillo board members, like board members in most Texas districts, were elected at large. Faced with a voting rights lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the League of United Latin American…

Holding closed sessions in school board meetings to reach major policy decisions is generally discouraged; but, school boards occasionally use this tactic if conflict and tension arise. Therefore, the questions of "how often does a Board of Education encounter conflict and tension" and "how is the decision made to schedule a closed session to…

School consolidation in rural districts has been ongoing since the 1800s. Although many district personnel tout economic inefficiency as a reason for consolidation to occur, micropolitics among school board members, parents, and the business community often drive the consolidation process. This article presents a qualitative case study of Webster…

This article presents the story of Wilson College, the only college in the United States where a group of alumnae took the trustees to court over the issue of the announced closing and won the case. The court reversed the trustees' decision on the grounds that the college had failed to seek approval from the court before announcing the change in…

This chapter is organized as follows. The first section examines the evolving state and federal role in education and the implications of an expanded federal role on the structure of the educational system. It pays particular attention to how the debate on the causes and solutions to school reform has shifted and the impact this has had on school…

The present article, a cross-case analysis, analyzes one aspect of the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that has generated conflict between the U.S. Department of Education and the federal court system. The conflicts arose between the courts' oversight of desegregation and the implementation of the public school choice…

Background/Context: Unlike the situation nationally where desegregation progress is faltering, the school district in Rock Hill, South Carolina, has recently undertaken measures to increase balance in pupil assignment despite considerable local opposition to these measures and the absence of a court order requiring the district to do so. Moreover,…

A recent Fifth United States Circuit Court of Appeals decision stipulates that a school board may regulate "employe expression" only in rare circumstances--to prevent, for example, serious disruption of school activities--and only where the board has allowed for a timely review of the superintendent's decisions about distributing…

In April 2005, the board of education in the Muhlenberg School District was forced to break one of their school policies after several parents complained about a book that has been included in the school's curriculum. The book, "The Buffalo Tree," by Adam Rapp has a passage detailing how an adolescent boy becomes sexually aroused in a communal…

After surveying recent constitutional trends and developments in charter jurisprudence and education, this paper examines the implications for Canadian schooling and education of an activist Supreme Court and discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of national policy making and judicial intervention in the educational arena. (Author/JAZ)

The forces seeking to subject the theory of evolution to greater criticism tasted both victory and defeat. Kansas officials approved an overhaul of their state science standards to do just that, while voters in a rural Pennsylvania district ousted advocates of "intelligent design" from the school board. Those two high-profile battles…

Examines the evoluation of proportional representation and its applicability to school districts, citing relevant court decisions. Recommends single-member districts and outlines a method for apportioning them. (MCG)